


A Monochrome Filter

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Disability, Fluff, M/M, curse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-11-18 15:42:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11293713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Color is a beautiful thing, but we take it for granted.Red, green, blue, purple, orange....But Kenma can't see any of those. He sees the world in black and white.His mother told him that this has happened in their family before, and that one day, he will meet someone who can take this curse away from him.But when you bring up the soulmate card, everyone rolls their eyes. Especially Kenma. Things like that would never, not ever, happen to a boy like him. So hope-wise, he's already given up.





	1. Basic Human Knowledge

Kenma looked in the mirror, running over everything in his head.

Eyes. They could be brown, hazel, green, blue, grey, and other forms of those. Hair. Brown, blonde, black, red. Some choose to dye it. Skin. Pale, fair, tanned, brown, olive, dark. His own appearance. Kenma's hair could've been black or dark brown at the roots. He bleached the rest last summer. For his eyes, dark ones were out of the question. He couldn't tell completely, but he thought they were some form of brown. His skin wasn't too light, but it wasn't dark either. Tanned, he thought.

Kenma never asked his parents about these things, and he never let them give him the answers. He wanted to try to guess what he looked like. Besides, he was required to use his head, and those games were the kind Kenma liked best. Then again, Kenma never really played games for fun. Just to use his overwhelming logical side. That was, what some could've called, enjoyable.

Kenma did, however, take enjoyment from something else, too. While he couldn't have much fun in the state he was in, he could see others having fun and enjoying themselves. He liked happy, excitable people. They made him smile, even if it was just a little. Kuroo, the only guy someone could consider a real friend, was a good example. He was hard to handle sometimes, but Kenma had the mentality that if he spent time with happy people, he would be happy as well. Hopefully. That's why he hung out with Kuroo, a boy with the most personality he had ever seen in a person.

But there was one more reason that Kenma was now trying to surround himself with these people.

Ever since he was younger, he had a disability that made him see the world in black and white. According to his mother, it ran in his family. And also according to her, the only cure is finding your soulmate. Just the thought of this made Kenma roll his eyes. He didn't really believe that finding his “soulmate” would help him in any way, but it was worth a shot. It wouldn't be smart of Kenma to not try at all.

He shook his head, trying not to let his pondering thoughts consume him too much. Kenma turned away from the mirror and walked downstairs. He opened the front door, finally leaving his house and heading towards the school. He had to be quiet so he wouldn't wake his parents. Kenma's route to Nekoma had many flowers and trees. Occasionally, an animal would be spotted. He chose this route very carefully, just in case he suddenly lost his disability. It was foolish, Kenma thought. But he was still trying to make an effort to fix things by himself. If he wasn't going to find his soulmate, he just had to do things on his own. And Kenma was pretty sure that at this point, whoever his soulmate was had chosen someone else by now. So he didn't want to get his hopes up. Kenma was nearing the school, and when it came into view, he sighed. Another day of this. And another day of hiding his handicap.


	2. Antisocial Tendancies

Kenma walked through the school doors, about to walk up the stairs and go to his locker.

But before he could do this, someone stopped him dead in his tracks. “Hey, Kenma!” Kuroo said happily, grinning at him. Kenma allowed himself to smile just a little bit.

“Yo,” he replied hastily.

“You forgot to text me last night,” Kuroo pointed out, moving to walk alongside Kenma.

“Sorry, I was playing games,” Kenma replied.

“At least you're honest...but hey, can you at least remember tonight? I wanna go over a few things before we go off to the training camp,” Kuroo asked, looking down at the smaller boy. Kenma nodded before he spoke again.

“Yeah, that's fine,” he said.

Kuroo was now a few feet ahead of him. He was much faster than Kenma, even when they were just casually strolling through the halls. “Come on, keep up!” Kuroo yelled behind him.

“I don't see the point,” Kenma said.

“Don't be so depressing! Come on!” he pushed further, now grabbing Kenma's hand and practically dragging him up the stairs. Kenma blinked, but he wasn't surprised by this behavior. It wasn't like he was lying when he said Kuroo was energetic. He was always full of energy. He hadn't ever met someone with as much energy as him before. Except maybe one of Kuroo’s friends, but they weren't close. They hardly knew each other. Kenma couldn't even remember the boy's name.

“Kuroo, you're gonna rip my arm off…” Kenma mumbled. Kuroo laughed obnoxiously in response, still continuing to pull him along until they reached Kenma's locker.

“We've reached our destination!” Kuroo announced.

“Yeah...thanks,” Kenma said quietly, unlocking his locker and tossing his backpack in. He grabbed his necessary materials, along with a few of his games, and was finally able to walk with Kuroo to their classroom.

Kenma didn't like how fast time went by during the day. He would finish his work long before everyone else, then he would play games for the rest of each class period. Things were always bland. The same. A never ending cycle that Kenma was doomed to be stuck in, that many called “boredom”. Not many things lifted his spirits or made him have fun. Not many things were interesting to Kenma. Except other people. Sometimes, he would sit in class and observe the other students. He would try to guess what they were thinking, what their stories were, what they had for breakfast that morning...things like that. And it was all decently amusing when he did it.

But nothing gave him more joy than his best friend or video games. Sometimes he wished that Kuroo played them, too. That way, they could hang out together and play them, bonding over how cool they are. Something silly like that. Thinking about this, however, made Kenma open his eyes to something.

No one would want to “hang out” with someone as uninteresting as him.

Especially not Kuroo. Yes, they were best friends, but Kuroo needed to be extremely social. He needed to be surrounded by many people at once. So Kenma felt that thinking about him doing something as simple as playing video games, with just the two of them, felt silly. He wouldn't want to do that.

Kuroo did, however, constantly try to take Kenma out with him and his other friends. He was very pushy and persistent about it. He truly felt that one day, his efforts to do so wouldn't go to waste. Kenma snorted.

How silly of him.


	3. Full And Complete Attention

As always, school flew by quickly. Kuroo talked to him in between classes, and at the end of the day, they met by Kenma's locker. This had become their routine after a few months of doing so. Kenma didn't really pay too much attention to what Kuroo said to him after school everyday. He found that the “just nod and agree” technique worked really well in most cases. But sometimes, it got him into trouble.

Like today.

Kuroo was talking, as usual, and Kenma was pretty much out of it. Because of this, he couldn't focus on what he was saying. “Man, you should come over tomorrow and hang with me and the guys. It'd be fun, and you never get out!” Kuroo said, nudging Kenma in the shoulder.

This nudge knocked Kenma out of his trance. He looked up at Kuroo, who was waiting for a reply. Without really thinking, and because he didn't know what else to say, Kenma said one word. “Sure.”

Kuroo’s face lit up. “Woah, really??” he asked in excitement. “That's awesome! I'll go tell them!” Kenma was going to ask what he was talking about, but he sped off, not saying another word.

Kenma was extremely confused, so he looked up and around at his surroundings. He had no idea where he was. Kuroo always walked him home, and he never payed attention to where they were before. But Kuroo couldn't even be seen from where he was anymore, so Kenma was completely lost. He felt his anxiety go up ever so slightly. It's fine, he thought. He'd be back soon. He wouldn't just abandon him. But he really wished he knew what Kuroo said in the first place.

Kenma decided that just standing there wasn't a good idea. So he took off his backpack and sat on a curb nearby. It was right next to a fence that he could lean on for the time being. When he sat down, he unzipped his backpack and took out a few of his games. He'd already played each one and finished them multiple times before, but he liked to challenge himself by finding a new way to finish the games each time. So Kenma brushed a bit of hair out of his eyes and started up the first game he pulled out from his bag. He sped past the first part of the game, only looking to complete the puzzles that he found entertaining. To an extent, at least. It kept his attention.

Every few minutes, Kenma would check the time on his phone, waiting for Kuroo to come back. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. One hour. He became more anxious with every second that went by. And he really felt like Kuroo had abandoned him. Over the course of two hours, he finished all of the games in his bag again.

Things were dead silent in the area Kenma was in. It was eerie. And it wasn't too late in the day, either. But he was still really anxious and scared. His friend probably went home, forgetting all about him. And because of his disease, he couldn't remember any of his surroundings to guide him. Everything just looked the same.

Feeling like he should give up hope, he gripped his game system in his hands, and leaned up against the fence. Kuroo wasn't coming back. He wasn't. He'd be lost until school started the next day, and he wouldn't be going home tonight. Kenma's hands began to shake, as they usually did when he was scared. He didn't really show fear anywhere else. Not even on his face. Just his hands.

Suddenly, Kenma heard a noise coming from a few blocks down. It sounded like yelling. Just a constant yell, and it didn't seem to have anything but motivation behind it. This  _ terrified  _ Kenma. So he just sat there, staring at the blank screen of his game system, listening to the quickly approaching roar.


	4. Bright As The Sun

As the footsteps got closer, Kenma tried to stay as calm and quiet as possible on the outside.

But the waiting was unbearable. The footsteps got slower, and he could hear someone talking to themselves, but not clearly enough to make out what they were saying. Kenma was getting impatient, so once again, he started up his game system with the one that was currently in it. He played it for a good, solid minute before he could hear their voice.

“Hey...no one's coming.” The voice was high and squeaky, but it was clearly coming from a boy. However, they couldn't possibly be very old at all.

Kenma stared intently at his screen as this person got closer to him. He stopped about 5 feet away from him. “What are you doing out here??” the boy questioned, suddenly leaping all the way to Kenma's side.

“I'm…” Kenma started, looking up at him, being cautious. He was about to finish his sentence when everything changed.

When Kenma looked up at this person, everything got so much brighter. So bright that he was reminded of the feeling of staring at the sun for two long. But more importantly, as Kenma's eyes widened in awe, he realized something. He couldn't spot a single shade of grey or black anywhere. The brightest thing in front of him was this boy's hair. It wasn't a normal color for hair. Too dark to be red. Not light enough to be yellow.

“.....Orange…” Kenma muttered without thinking. “Your hair….is orange…”

The boy tilted his head to one side. “Um...yeah!” he said, brushing his hair back a bit. “But you didn't answer my question!”

Kenma blinked, shaking his head to snap out of whatever trance he was in. “Oh..s...sorry…” he said. “I'm lost…”

“Hey! Me too!” the boy shouted back. His voice seemed to be permanently loud. Kenma assumed that this was his normal tone, and didn't pay it any mind. Suddenly, he pointed to Kenma's game system and started to speak again. “Is that fun?” he asked.

“Uh...not really…” Kenma responded. “I'm just passing time..”

This conversation was far too casual. Who was this person? Why did they suddenly make him see colors? Nothing made any sense. He looked up again, staring at his surroundings. Everything was so bright. The flowers were suddenly 90% more beautiful. Even so, the color orange stuck to the back of his mind the whole time. It was the first one he'd ever seen and identified. And it was very beautiful. Captivating, even. While Kenma was getting lost in those thoughts, the boy pointed to his shoes sticking out of the bag he'd brought along and dropped on the ground when he sat.

“Y...Your shoes! Those are volleyball shoes!” he said. “Do you play volleyball??”

“Oh...yeah,” Kenma responded.

“So do I!” the boy announced, putting his hands on his hips with pride. “I'm Hinata Shoyou!”

Kenma's eyes widened a bit. Hinata Shoyou. He'd heard that name before. This boy was from Karasuno High School. “K….Kozume…” Kenma eventually responded.

“Kozume?” Hinata questioned. “Is that your name?”

“Kozume…..” Kenma continued. “....Kenma.”

Hinata smiled at this, kneeling next to him. He looked like he had so much to say. But now, Kenma was so overwhelmed and confused by everything...that he was practically speechless.


End file.
